


The Worth of Nothing

by DaAmazingMeepers, kittenkanaya



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Blood, Character Study, Gen, Injury, Lance is kinda dying, Lance misses home, Major Character Injury, Please don't burn me for the implied, This was actually written as a sample for a zine, but not really, shance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-09
Updated: 2017-04-09
Packaged: 2018-10-16 23:23:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10581630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DaAmazingMeepers/pseuds/DaAmazingMeepers, https://archiveofourown.org/users/kittenkanaya/pseuds/kittenkanaya
Summary: Lance is injured and hides it from the others. He wishes for home and he nearly gets his wish.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so this is the sample I wrote for a Zine application. I couldn't think of anything so I asked DaAmazingmeepers, my Beta for this, to give me an idea and she suggested that Lance be injured and hide it from the others.
> 
> I heavily suggest that you listen to Sugame no Sakana and Midori no Za (On Air Versions for both) because 1) it'll choke you up and 2) its my two favorite tracks from the soundtrack I listened to while writing this. Even if you don't listen to them while reading this you should definitely give the Mushishi soundtrack some love.

It's dark. Not the kind of dark where you can't physically see anything, but the kind of dark where your senses are numb and part of you feels hot and alive - if only for a moment - and the other part feels cold and dead. The kind of darkness that only comes over you because of a severe wound. However, Lance knows that he's going to have to hide the pain and the blood. The team needs to worry about Shiro's wounds, not his. 

 

Lance adjusts his armor to where it hides most of the torn and bruised flesh and exits Blue before the other paladins come out. He needs to get away or they'll ask questions. They'll  _ worry _ . 

 

He stumbles a bit as he exits the hangar, no clear destination in mind. The blood oozes down his torso, his legs, and soaks into his clothes even more. His shoes make squelching noises and his vision blurs. He leans against the nearest wall and takes a breath, regaining focus and it becomes clear in that moment where he wants to go.

 

_ Home. _

 

So he decides to go to the one place on this godforsaken castle-ship that can grant him that. He resumes walking - knowing that his destination will most likely not grant him solitude, but he continues to hope that it will. Maybe Allura and Coran will rush to the lion bay to check on the others before he gets there.

 

Lance barely registers the searing pain that wracks his body as he uses the wall for support.  _ When did he start to need support? Is his body that weak now? Is _ he _ that weak? _ He shakes his head, attempting to clear away those unwanted thoughts so he can focus on getting to the observatory. So he can focus on seeing his beloved planet that was as blue as his lion. 

 

As he comes up to the door, he sees that it's already open and lacking Allura and Coran. It's lacking anyone, to be exact. It gives Lance a sense of relief. Now he won't have to answer for his wounds. He can be at peace.

 

Lance limps up to the control panel and taps the screen until he sees symbols that match the ones he saw the night of the explosion. He squints past the blood and his blurring vision until he sees the screen Coran had gone to to pull up the star map and taps it. A blanket of stars and planets suddenly engulf him and for the millionth time since he found Blue, he feels truly small. The holographic stars twinkle and the planets swirl against the misty blue background but none of currently displayed ones are what he wants to see.

 

He lifts his now heavy arm and scrolls until the constellations look familiar and he sees his home galaxy. His blue, blue galaxy that was so far away but he couldn't help loving.  Lance enlarges the milky way and then walks forward through the display until he's directly in front of Earth. Even though he knows that he cannot touch it, he cups his hands around the miniature Earth as if he were holding it up. As if he could protect it and comfort it’s inhabitants like he’s done for countless other planets. But deep down, he knows that it isn’t his job to do that. He knows well that protection is better left to a genius engineer and chef, a pint-sized tech wizard, the best pilot of his generation, and the most amazing leader the galaxy has ever seen. It isn’t the job of a young boy from Cuba who just so happens to be accurate with aiming a gun. 

 

Lance feels something warm slide down his cheeks and he knows better than to tell himself that it’s blood. Lance’s sorrow increases as he thinks about how not even his blood will stay with him, how his skin has to trap it from running away instead of keeping him alive and safe. Briefly, he thinks about letting his blood be free of a useless body but his train of thought is interrupted by a sudden feeling of faintness. His hands drop to hang at his sides and he stumbles back a few steps until he is able to sit down on the steps in front of Allura’s station. His vision swims and the planets and stars become a bright, electric blue blur. 

 

His exhausted brain faintly compares the blue to the sky and ocean at home on Earth. He hears voices and he allows himself to entertain that they are the shouts of his family at home, his siblings yelling at him to get his attention and play with them. The edges of his lips quirk up into a smile at the thought of playing with them. He feels a chill wrack his body and he pretends it’s the breeze at the beach and the cold ocean water splashing him. And it’s in this moment, surrounded by a hologram of blurry blue planets and stars and while bleeding out, that Lance can forget his shallow breaths and say that he’s at home and away from the intergalactic war that gave him these wounds.

 

Then everything goes dark. Lance has to blink his bleary eyes a few times to realize that it isn’t just from the lack of blood, but the star map has been shut off. The voices he’d heard before suddenly became loud and he was jostled from side to side. His face was maneuvered to look at another one.  _ Shiro _ . 

 

Shiro was screaming something at him but it just sounded muffled and distant. Lance forced himself to read Shiro’s lips as best as he could.

 

_ Lance… Lance… Can… hear… me?  _

 

He weakly nodded. Lance could tell that Shiro was panicked, but didn’t know why. Lance wasn’t important, so why was Shiro crying and rushing to pick him up like a child and take him to the cryo pods? Why was everyone else following closely behind with looks of terror and the fear of imminent loss etched onto their faces? 

 

His confusion continued until Shiro all but threw him into the cryo pod and the glass appeared, fogged up, and his body temperature plummeted to the freezing state. The last thing he saw before his consciousness left him was tear-streaked faces and Shiro’s hand pressed against the glass, agony clear in his eyes.

 

The first thing he saw when he awoke was his team with baggy, red eyes and Shiro. He had a beard and looked hungry and exhausted. The first thing he felt was warm arms and wet tears that didn’t belong to him on his cheeks. The first thing he heard was muttered thanks to God and Lance’s name.

  
This was the beginning of a new Lance - one who knew his worth.  


End file.
